Great Financial Outcome in 3 months

Co-Founder of Brilliant Businesses David Biddle tells the story of our first business sale.

“When I decided the time was right to sell my last business it seemed I had two options:

Go own the traditional route of using a business broker, or

Roll up my sleeves and do the hard work myself…

Option 1 was certainly the easiest – research a broker and let them get on with it, with minimal involvement from me. After all that would give me time to get on with running the business and leave the ‘experts’ to market, present, negotiate and sell on my behalf.

As I looked deeper into what was involved with a potential broker it became immediately obvious there was:

A lack of knowledge of my business

A lack of knowledge of the market in which I operated

A lack of enthusiasm to get me the best result – it was easier to set a low price expectation, hopefully sell quicker and move on the next

An inflexible valuation method that did not take into account the unique lifestyle opportunity I was marketing

A staid approach to marketing that did nothing to tap into the digital revolution – What they did do was predominantly reactive, not pro-active

A likelihood that a sale would take years to complete

A price tag of 8% of the sale price

In short they were offering very little and wanted a big commission. There had to be a better way…

Finding a better way

I’d worked for years with my now business partner Deb Jeffreys and understood the power of content rich websites and fast moving digital marketing techniques.

Deb and I brainstormed… and the better way was actually blindingly obvious… build a website with the sole aim of showcasing my business and market it proactively to attract generate excitement and attract competing buyers to the business.

Deb and I created a content rich, appealing and highly informative website that conveyed the passion behind this lifestyle opportunity.

The Smart Boating for sale website included detailed information about:

different parts of the business and income streams

location, staffing, assets, leases

opportunities for growth

a downloadable preliminary non-disclosure agreement

Deb and her team marketed the website using Google Adwords, Facebook, retargeting and database newsletters.

One of Smart Boating’s syndicate owners, who is a Jetstar pilot, rang me up and said ‘How can you afford to advertise on the Qantas website?’ Another asked me, ‘Who is doing your marketing? They are fantastic!’

Neither realised it was Brilliant Digital’s use of retargeting that made my for sale website keep appearing all over the internet—it is such a powerful tool.”

The result was 20 signed non-disclosure agreements and 3 serious buyers fighting over Smart Boating. I was out of the door inside 3 months with significantly more money in the bank than the original broker had suggested was achievable.

This was an unprecedented result and was without doubt due to the value of the business and the opportunity the website communicated so well.

I received heaps of congratulatory comments about the way we had presented the business online with most of the prospects commenting on how refreshing it was to deal with someone who truly understood the business and who could answer questions knowledgeably.

It was obvious this approach had a future and with a business partnership between Deb and I firmly on the table, the seeds of Brilliant Businesses were sewn.

Contact Brilliant Businesses

We deliver outstanding return on investment to successful businesses selling for in excess of $500k. We’d love to work with you to deliver a complete and innovative end-to-end solution for the sale of your business.